Although the singing traditions of Kashmir are usually associated with Kashmiri Muslims but around hundred years ago, a visitor to Kashmir could run into a thriving community of Pandit singers too.

Yet, the only documented record of them comes from a few pages in a work titled 'Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir' (1913) by Ratan Devi and Ananda Coomaraswamy.

In 1911, while collecting Kashmiri songs in valley, they found that:

"Kashmiri Pandits are rarely musicians: those who are, claim to sing in many rags and talk boastfully of Kashmir as the original source of the music of Hindustan reckoning Kashmir another country, and not a part of India.

We heard three Pandit singers of some reputation, all old men. As accompaniment to the voice they use a small and rather toneless sitar. One also played on a zither (independently, not as an accompaniment), striking the many strings (tuned with much difficulty), with small wooden hammers held in both hands, making a sweet tinkling music. We were told that this Pandit was accustomed to sing to sick people, and even effect cures, but to our thinking, he sang no better than the others, that is, not very well. The so-called various rags sung by the Pandits are all very much alike, and musically distinctly uninteresting. The only song which seemed to us all worth recording was the following "Invocation to Ganesh" sung by Krishna Boya Greb, Pandit, son of Vasu Dev Boya Greb, to a sitar accompaniment. This very slow, rather hymn-like tune, if imagined to be sung in a rather nasal and drawling voice, will give a good idea of the general type of Pandit songs, expect as regards the words, which are exceptional. The curious actable staccato does not appear in any other Kashmiri song here recorded.

Invocation to Ganesh

Tsara tsar chhuk parmisharo

Rachhtam pananen padan tal

Gaza-mokha balaptsandra lambo-dara

Venayeko boyinai jai

Hara-mokha darshun dittam ishara

Rachhtam pananen padan tal

Translation [one Pandit Samsara Chand helped with the text, but the translation are all mostly flawed]:

Thou art all that moves or moves not, Supreme Lord!

The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!

Gaja-mukha, Bala-chandra, Lambo-dara,

Vinayaka, I cry Thee 'Victory'!

In all wise show me They face, O Lord!

The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!

Some other Pandit songs:

Love Song

As nai visiye myon hiu kas go

yas gau masvale gonde hawao

Zune dabi bhitui dari chhas thas gom

Zonamzi osh ma angan tsav

yar ne deshan volingi tsas gom

yas gau masvale gonde hawao

Do not mock, my friend (f.); had it befallen another like me,

That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!

As I sat on the moonlit balcony, he came to the door;

I learnt that my lover had come to my courtyard,

If I meet not my darling (m.) I shall suffer heart-pangs

That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!

[There are a bunch of other songs given in the book by the only one I could easily recognise was the 'Spring Song' for its refrain Yid aye...(Eid has come)]

Yid ay bag fel yosman

Karayo kosmanan krav

Yid ay bag fel yosman

Nirit goham vanan

Yut kya tse chhuyo chavo

Trovit tsulhama mosman

karyo kosmanan krav

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And yes, Pandits still lay claim on giving India Natya Shastra, or at least giving the most authoritative commentary on it through Abhinavagupta.

It is widely believed that the first person to bring works of Kashmiri poet Mahmud Gami (1750-1855) to western world was Karl Frederick Burkhard when in 1895 he partially published Gami's retelling of 'Yusuf Zulekhah' in a German magazine.

Last night, I came across something that proves that Mahmud Gami's words may have actually reached west a couple of decades earlier due to incidental travel journaling by a British painter, who also happens to be a blood relative of Virginia Woolf.

In 1877, after sketching the royalty of the Kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir, while on his way back, at Thanna Mandi, a place near Rajouri, in the afternoon of 13th June, V. C. Prinsep (1838-1904) met a traveling Kashmiri bard, a singing fakir, who regaled him with Kashmiri songs for hours while they walked. Preinsep made some notes, and later got two of the songs translated.

In his book 'Imperial India; an artist's journals' (1879), Preinsep writes:

He was a filthy object, the dirtiest of the dirty; but he had the soul of a poet, and as he played his poor four-stringed instrument, he threw his head on one side, and bent over his guitar, much as first-rate performers do at home. He was grateful too, for when I left at 5 a.m., I found him waiting, and he played to me along a couple of miles of road, with his dirty legs keeping time to the twang of his music, and his nose well in the air ; neither would he leave until I gave hookham or permission.
My good friend Major Henderson [C.S.I., who was political officer in Kashmir, and an excellent linguist.] has sent me translations of two of this poet's songs. One appears to be well known as the love-song of Mohammed Gami, a Kashmir poet.
"Like a flower-bearing plant I have become withered,
Even I, for thy love, O Bee ;
I will wail like the nightingale,
'Where shall I seek thee, O Lily ? '
Deal gently with me, come to my feast ;
I will encircle thee with my arms, O Bee !
What said I to thee that vexed thy heart with me ?
By God, I adjure thee, tell me what is in thy heart.
O dear friend, where didst thou flee from me ?
Forsaking me, Sundar, O Bee ! "
I should like to have imported my poet as he appeared to me in his rags and filth ; yet is his love-song much like such as are sung in the drawing-rooms of Belgravia. The second song is another love-song, and the name of the poet is not known.
"Go, O bosom friend, bring me my lover, gently, gently.
In anger he left me, sore and vexed : what offence could I have caused him?
What is to me adornment of the person, antimony for the eyes, or any other
embellishment ?
For wealth and pearls what care I ? or the bells attached to my skirt ?
O friend, sit with me in the shade of a wide-spreading chenar !
Let not the calumny of an enemy affect thee. I am helpless.
For my beauteous and graceful lover a divan and couch I will prepare.
If he is not pleased with me, for whom shall I prepare them ?
See what happened to Shuk Sanaa for the sake of the Hindoo maiden !
He wore the sacred thread, he cherished swine with his own hands ! "

As is turns out, the second song is from work called 'Shekh Sana', a version of which among others was put to Kashmiri verses by Mahmud Gami.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Photograph of the Meruvardhanaswami temple at Pandrethan near Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, taken in 1868 by John Burke. Pandrethan, now mostly in ruins, is one of Kashmir's historic capitals, said by Kalhana in his poetical account of Kashmiri history called Rajatarangini to have been founded by king Pravarsena in the 6th century AD. Its name thus derives from Puranadishthana or 'old town'. The small stone Shiva temple in the picture dates from the mid-10th century, reputedly erected by a minister named Meru. It was set in a spring-fed tank and its plinth is now submerged. This general view of the temple is reproduced in Henry Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India report, 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir,' (1869), in which he wrote, 'The small village of Pandrethan is situated on the Jhelum, about a mile and a half to the south-east of Srinagar...The Temple is close to the village, and stands in the centre of a tank of water...At the time of my visit, the water was about two feet over the floor of the Temple, and I had to obtain a small boat to enable me and my surveyors to take measurements. The stone ceiling is elaborately carved in bas-relief figures, and it is one of the most perfect pieces of ancient carving that exists in Kashmir...The pyramidal roof is divided into two portions by an ornamental band. The corner pilasters are surmounted by carved capitals, and the pediments of the porches appear to have terminated with a melon-shaped ornament. The ceiling is formed of nine blocks of stone; four resting over the angles of the cornice, reduce the opening to a square, and an upper course of four stones still further reduces the opening, which is covered by a single block decorated with a large lotus.'

The above image and description is easily available at British Library. What I am actually sharing is something inside the temple. The design that could be seen on the ceiling.

The design on the ceiling was first copied by Alexander Cunningham in around 1848 after a tip-off by Lord John Elphinstone. When Cunningham visited the temple, there was evidence that one time the ornamentation, the designs and the figures of the temple must have been profusely plastered over to cover its naked idol beauty.

Inside, he found figures on the walls plastered as also the ornamentation on ceiling. He gives it as the reason why George Trebeck didn't notice any figures or any designs on the ceiling when he became the first European to enter the temple in around 1822.

Alexander Cunningham had the plaster removed and the figures on the ceiling appeared.

Cunningham's copy of the designEssay on the Avian Order of Architecture by Alexander Cunningham Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal (1848)

"The ceiling is formed of nine blocks, four of which rest over the angles of the cornice, and reduce the opening to a square, which is just one half of the size of the other. The same process is again repeated with an upper course of four stones, by which the opening is still further narrowed to a square of 4 feet ; and lastly, this opening is covered by a single stone decorated with a large expanded lotus, surrounded by a beaded circle. The smaller angles are occupied by naked human figures, something similar to those of the Payach ceiling, but without wings. These figures besides have only one leg and one arm outstretched, which affords more variety than the other treatment at Payach. Each of the larger angles is filled with two figures holding out a garland, which falls in a graceful loop between them. The whole rests upon a cornice supported by brackets, which were so much decayed that I found it impossible to trace their decorations or even their exact shape. The spaces between the brackets were also much injured ; but they appeared to have been filled with some kind of ornamental drapery hanging in curved folds."

The winged figures noticed by him on the ceiling of Payach:

A much more detailed (lesser know) copy of Pandrethan ceiling prepared by one R.T. Burney was presented by W.G. Cowie in his 1865 paper 'Notes on some of the Temples of Kashmir, especially those not described by General A. Cunninghan' (Journal of The Asiatiic Society of Bengal Volume 35, Part 1. 1866)

W.G. Cowie states: "General Cunningham's drawing of the ceiling of the temple is not quite complete. From the accompanying very accurate sketch made by Mr. R. T. Burney of the Civil Service, (Plate XVIII.), it will be seen that the angles of the square in which the beaded circle is, are occupied by naked human figures, as well as the angles of the other squares. These innermost figures have both arms outstretched, like those at Payach seeming to hold up the circle. They have drapery about their shoulders, resembling light scarfs. The brackets supporting the cornice were once ornamented, and show marks of great violence having been used to destroy the carving. Each appears to have represented a human head ; for on several of them there still remains on both sides what looks like plaited hair. The pediment pilasters project 5 inches beyond those supporting the trefoiled arches. The corner pilasters of the building are 1 foot 10 1/2 inches thick. I found what I took for mortar in all parts of the building.

Friday, September 27, 2013

"How they frighten birds in Kashmir by means of a cracker made of plaited strips of bush ten feet long"~ 'Indian Memories: Recollections of Soldiering Sport, Etc.' (1915) by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, father of Scout Movement.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Brigid Keenan originally meant this book to be a booklet on papier mache art of Kashmir, but once she started collecting material, as often happens in case of Kashmir, she got swept away in the flood its colorful history. So, instead she wrote a 'general' book about Kashmir. A book that picks the best bits about Kashmir and presents it beautifully.

The book revisits those old literally routes through which the west discovered Kashmir. It does this by presenting the interesting stories of early European visitors, most of them now famous because of their journals, but also some minor one and their little known travel diaries (some of them still not publicly available ). So we read story of George Forster travelling under guise of a Muslim and almost getting caught because in a moment of lapse he takes a leak while standing, like a man devoid of faith. And on other end we have the story of a Kashmiri tailor named Butterfly, maker of finest lingerie for British in India, who accidentally embarrassed his Memsahib clients when he brought out a catalogue carrying neatly sketched details of his comfy products and the names of the elite clients enjoying them.

Besides all this, what really makes this book stand out is that Brigid Keenan gives us the description and location of some heritage sites associated with British in Srinagar. Their playgrounds, their famous camp sites (Chinar Bagh), their church (All Saint's Church), their graves (Shiekh Bagh) and their colony (Munshi Bagh). And much like the books of early visitors to Kashmir, this book too provides us a vital snapshot about the status of some old monuments and heritage sites of Kashmir. Reading this book we get to know their status as they stood in 1989 - already vanishing.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

"May 8 to 17 [1832, Kabul]- I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Wolff, who came into my room, and told me to listen to the Bible, and be converted to Christianity, which is the best religion in the world. My answer pleased the reverend gentleman very much. He added the following most singular speech : - That in the city of Bokhara he had an interview with Jesus Christ, who informed him that the pleasant valley of Kashmir will be the New Jerusalem after a few years."

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

A woman, her head covered, like she was on her way to a temple, praying aloud for the welfare of her family, like at a temple, walked past me and entered the chamber that is believed to house the grave of Akbar. The unconventionally plain walled chamber in fact houses the cenotaph of Akbar the Great.Sikandra. U.P. July. 2011.

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In 1892, just three weeks after his death, Lord Alfred Tennyson, considered one of the greatest British Poet, was posthumously published. The collection of poems 'The Death of Oenone, Akbar's Dream, and Other Poems'. Among these, 'Akbar's Dream' is considered his last possible work. The poem was set as a conversation between Akbar and his trusted friend Abu Fazal. In the verses giving us visions of Akbar's great dream for his empire, its subjects, his fear of his sons and their budding blood thirst, his prophecy of a possible death of his dreams, and a possible salvation through adoption by a bigger dream - in all of it we can read how Tennyson believed British Empire was the only true inheritor and propagator of Akbar's dream. The work is an interesting mixup of British imperialistic dreams with their oriental longings.

If one forgets that it's actually a British poem and has a subliminal meaning, an Indian can now easily adopt Akbar's dream. Or perhaps already has. Isn't modern India imagined and presented as a part of Akbar's great dream? That's not even remotely interesting. What is interesting is that this dream of Akbar presented by Tennyson actually starts with Kashmir.

AN INSCRIPTION BY ABUL FAZL FOR A TEMPLE IN KASHMIR
(Blochmann xxxii.)

O GOD in every temple I see people that see thee,
and in every language I hear spoken, people praise thee.
Polytheism and Islam feel after thee.
Each religion says, 'Thou art one, without equal.'
If it be a mosque people murmur the holy prayer, and if it be a Christian Church, people ring the bell from love to Thee.
Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque.
But it is thou whom I search from temple to temple.
Thy elect have no dealings with either heresy or orthodoxy; for neither of them stands behind the screen of thy truth.
Heresy to the heretic, and religion to the orthodox,
But the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the heart of the perfume seller.

In 1872, Heidegger (Henry) Blochmann published the manuscript of 'The Ain i Akbari', and then in 1873 followed it with a translation.

In this book, about the origin of these lines, Blochmann writes:

"The 'Durar ul Manshur', a modern Tazkirah by Muhammad Askari Husaini of Bilgram, selects the following inscription written by Abul Fazal for a temple in Kashmir as a specimen both of Abul Fazal's writing and his religious belief. It is certainly vey characteristic, and is easily recognised as Abul Fazal's composition."

Saturday, September 21, 2013

To get the feel of the era right for Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), among other things, the art director used authentic antique Kashmiri shawls from private collection. The art director was Bansi Chandragupta. If Satyajit Ray is considered one of the greatest Indian film directors of all time, his regular art director Bansi Chandragupta can be considered one of the best and pioneering art directors in India.

Bansi Chandragupta was born in 1924 in Sailkot. When still a child his family moved to Srinagar where he did his basic education. In 1942, in midst of 'Quit-India' movement he moved to Bengal and was introduced to Satyajit Ray as a painter. Along with Ray he was one of the founders of Calcutta film society. In years to come, Bansi Chandragupta went on to be Ray's 'Kashmiri' friend who helped him in creation of almost all his cinematic masterpieces.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Peace brigades marching towards
Srinagar on the eve of taking over the emergency administration
of the State by Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah in 1947
Photographer: [K.N. (?)] Bamzai. [Photodivision India]

Collected this story in Jammu while walking my father's Badi Maami to the main road as there was no light in the lanes. She had heard Kashmir interests me. In darkness, in between pauses of heavy breath, while slow walking, she told me about death of her brother in 1947.

Few remember those dead people now. Few know their stories. He died so young. My brother...Bira...Somnath Koul Bira. He was with Shiekh. He was part of Militia. The 'National Militia'. They defended Kashmir. When Kabailis attacked. They fought back. He died. There was communal unrest in Doda [then still part of Udhampur District]. Tribals were raiding. Hindus and Sikhs were killing Muslims. Muslims were killing Hindus. 700 people from Srinagar volunteered to go there as 'Peace Bridage'. My brother was one of the leaders. Peace was established. But he never returned. There were stories. Stories of foul play. I was told he died even before reaching Doda. On the way they had to cross a bridge over Chenab. While crossing the bridge, they came under fire. I was told he fell in Chenab. He was gone.

Somnath Koul Bira was among the bright crop of young student leaders that came out of Lahore. Among his friends were Professor Apurab Somnath [Bakhiri] and Professor Durrani.

In 1947, a close to 600 Kashmiri Pandits were part of the Kashmir Militia. A lot of them communists.

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Photograph of Somnath Bira,
young man at the back in dark coat, pomaded hair parted neatly and a fountain pen in breast pocket.
From personal collection of Somnath Bira's brother Jawahar Kaul Bira based now based in Gurgaon.
Shared by Anil Taku, nephew of Somnath Bira.

Based on an online conversation here's what I could gather:

In 1947 (48) valley was invaded by the tribals led on by Pir Sahab of Manki Sharief (Syed Mohammad Aminul Hassnat, of NWFP) and supported by regulars of the Pakistan Army. In response, a group of young men in Srinagar called Progressive Group started a Peace Brigade as first line of defense. Around this time a group led by Puskkar Nath Zadoo went to Handwara to stall the march of invaders. The men had almost nothing in name of weapons. Pushkar Nath Zadoo lost his life in the attempt. Another group led by Professor Apoorab Somnath planned to head for Jammu. This group included Somnath Bira of Rainawari, Professor Hriday Nath Durani, Professor Mahmood Hashmi (Urdu lecturer from Amar Singh College) and artist P. N. Kachroo. Professor Durani had to return back from Qazigund on account of ill health. P. N. Kachroo couldn't go because he was tired up heading the cultural wing of the group. On reaching Jammu, Professor Hashmi, a close friend Apoorab Somnath, sneaked away from the group ideologically and left for Poonch from where he crossed over to Pakistan and crossed sides. * Somnath Bira died at the hands of hostile forces near a place called Regi Nallah between Bhadarwah and Doda. His body was never found.

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*
Mehmood Hashmi went on to write a reportage in 1950 based on his experiences. 'Kashmir Udaas Hai' published in Pakistan is considered first of its kind book in Urdu. He worked in the parallel government for some years and then moved to England in 1970s where he continued to work for promotion of Urdu language.

"The natives of Kashmir are in the habit during the cold weather of carrying about a small pot covered with basket-work called a kangri ; when in use it is filled with hot embers. On preparing to go to sleep these people very frequently put their kangri with its ignited contents inside the breast part of their upper garment, a practice which very often results in their being severely burnt about the chest, as it would seem they are very heavy sleepers.
The kangri appears to have found a home in one part of Italy only. In Florence, during the winters, which are very severe, no Florentine woman of the lower classes walks abroad without carrying her Scaldino, a reproduction of the kangri of Kashmir. Dr [Eugen] Hultzsch has shown that the use of portable fireplaces or braziers was known in India — in Kashmir — as early as the twelfth century a.d., and here we have their use in Persia (and if [Pietro] Della Valle's word tennor be right, in Arabia also), as well as in Spain and Italy, in a manner implying a long previous history."

~ 'The Symbolism of the East and West' (1900) by Mrs Murray Aynsley.
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A bit about Kangri, its possible origins and place among similar apparatus from around the world. Its closest relative probably comes from China.

"Many varieties of the hot-water containers have been developed. As novelties in the English potters' exhibition at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876 were foot-shaped vessels for hot water intended for placing in boots for drying them, and concavo-convex vessels for applying heat to the abdominal region. the Museum has a rare pottery hot-water bottle (pl.3, fig.1) with formed depressions for the feet of a lady. This vessel is of glazed Binghamton earthenware and dates about 1840. Several varieties of hand stove are found in easter Asia. they are usually of brass or copper, and consist of a small rectangular box with pertorated lid like an incense burner, and have a handle. They are often quite artistic pieces of workmanship (pl4.1). Sven Hedin found this variety of heating device at Lan Chow, western China, and says: "Among other things I bought shakos, or hand stoves, shaped like teapots but with grated lids. You fill them with ashes and put two or three pieces of red-hot charcoal in the middle of the ashes. the sha-lo will then keep warm for a good 24 hours."

The Japanese pocket stove, or belly stove, as it is called, is much in advance of the examples previously described in that it employs a specially prepared fuel whose origin is probably in ancient experiments to produce a slow match for preserving fire for a long time. The pocket stove is a box of copper or tin slightly curved to fit the wearer, and with perforated sliding lid. paper cartridges filled with powdered charcoal of a specified kind are placed in the box, lighted at one end, and the lid closed. One charge gives out a gentle heat for four hours. Such stove are cheap, useful, and efficient. Another form widely spread is a small vessel with handle, in which a charcoal fire is carried about and used to warm the feet and hands. Perhaps the more familiar example of this personal stove is the scaldino of Italy, possibly of quite ancient origin (pl.3. fig. 2). These little stoves are made of bronze and terrra cotta, vase shape, with lid. Sometimes they are real works of art, designed for use by the elite. In China such stoves consist of a pottery bowl neatly incased in bamboo basketry. The Chinese bamboo portable stove has a base of sufficient diameter to prevent tipping over and is carried by a handle. (pl.3.figs.3,4). A similar vessel, called Kangri, is used during cold weather at Srinagar, Kashmir. the fire bowl is incased in elaborately woven osier over plates of mica. On top is a yoke-shape frame with a loop for carrying without getting the fingers burnt. Collected by Dr. W.L. Abbott (pl.3. fig 5).

~ Based on notes on specimen found by Dr. William Louis Abbot (1860-1936) in Kashmir in between 1891 and 1894 and presented in 'Fire as an agent in Human Culture' (1926) by Walter Hough for Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Modes of lighting in Kashmir and evolution of lamp around late 19th century and early 20th century. Based on notes on specimen found by Dr. William Louis Abbot (1860-1936) in Kashmir in between 1891 and 1894 and presented in 'Fire as an agent in Human Culture' (1926) by Walter Hough for Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum.

About the kind of torch used in Kashmir: "Mass of fat formed upon a stick, around which is wound a wick of fiber." [Torches of Birch bark are still widely remembered]

No. 10 Stone Lamp with pointed spout. Cashmere, India.

"Doctor Abbott also got pottery lamps from Kashmir. They are saucers of thin terra cotta pressed in on opposite sides to form a handle by which the lamp may be grasped. Another lamp from Srinagar, is napiform of red terra cotta with spout. The wick channel is cut through the rim and the reservoir is open above, as in the Turkestan lamps. This specimen is decorated with incises triangles and the border is scalloped. the native name is song [should be T'song]."

"Modification of the saucer lamp are plentiful for the purpose of placing the wick. Examples are shallow groves pounded in the Cashemere copper lamps and the bending in of the edge of the pottery saucers from ancient sites in Syria, North Africa, and other localities, modifying features suggesting the beginning of the wick spout. […]

The next step is in the measures taken to install the wick. By this step the lamp assumed the shape which it retained for thousands of years, This shape is familiar in the classic lamp, which has a circular reservoir and projecting beak for the wick.

The beak also arises in another manner that is germane to the construction of the lamp. The acute triangle form lamp cut from soapstone by the Kashmir and secured by Dr. W. L. About has the trough contained from the reservoir to the apex of the triangle and related to the shape of the excavation in the vessel. This introduced the pottery lamp in the form of a foot with open wick trough extended as a clumsy spout or beak. The reservoir is closed over, and through the top as through the next of a bottle oil was poured in. This form is ancient, being sculpted on a stone zodiacal slab of Nazi Maradah, son of Kurigalzar II, about the middle of the fourteenth century B.C. It is also shown on the cap of a kudurru or boundary stone bearing the star emblems representing Babylonian deities. Identical lamps are still in use in Turkestan and Kashmir, and have been found in Mohammedan stations in Egypt, Asiatic Turkey, and Spain."

"In Cashmere, India, walnut oil and oil expressed from apricot seeds were used in lamps."*

Thursday, September 12, 2013

At the side of the bed
the knot came undone by itself,
and barely held by the sash
the robe slipped to my waist.
My friend, it’s all I know: I was in his arms
and I can’t remember who was who
or what we did or how

~ verses of 9th century Kashmiri poetess named Vikatanitamba ( literally 'Horrible Hind'), translated by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. Not much is known about the woman except that (like a lot of later Kashmiri poetesses) she had a sad marriage. She was married to a man with much lesser language skills than her (in fact, the guy had (like a lot of Kashmiris) pronunciation troubles).

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The end scene from black comedy film about greed and money, 'Magic Christian' (1969) starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. The scene has people jumping into a 'toxic spill' to claim free (fake) money.

This is how the 'Great Suyya Experiment' from Rajatarangini would have actually played out.

Monday, September 9, 2013

An old woman living in a colonial house on a hill in Kasauli would let no one enter her little paradise - a hard won lonely life after a ages spent serving a husband, many children and many grand-children. She is a recluse. She wants no one. Not even her great-grand child. But then the child arrives. A sickly young girl who turns out to be just as much of recluse. The child doesn't want anyone to enter she little paradise, a child's world half lived in fantasies. A mind that seeks little adventures like looking for berries, snakes, jackals and ghosts in the peaceful loneliness offered by the hills. The old woman realizes while they are similar, there is a difference too, while her reclusiveness in self-imposed, the child was just born into it. The old woman starts changing, she now wants to enter the child's world and share her own world with her. She tries, but fails. The child wants no one. The old woman falls back to the age old stratagem of 'Nani Ki Kahani' to try and reach out. She weaves stories of her life by taking snippets of inspirations from travelogue of Marco Polo, in desperation she makes her own father a reflection of Marco Polo who travelled far into the mysterious lands of East. The child's mind is stirred and old woman senses a relation blossoming. She tries harder. Nanda Kaul tells her great-grand daughter Raka about the paradise where she was born, she tells her grand exaggerated stories about Kashmir. Strange stories about a house with a private zoo and backdoors that opened into flooded rivers. The child listens. But...

Raka's words did not reflect the poetry of this vision. They were blunt and straight. 'Why did you come here then,' she asked, 'instead of going back to Kashmir?'
Nanda Kaul simply shook her head and seem to wander in a field of grey thoughts, alone. 'One does not go back,' she said eventually. 'No, one doesn't go back. One might just as well try to become young again.'

The child soon catches on to the tricks and again retreats back into her world while Nanda Kaul's world suffers another intrusion. Ila Das, a childhood friend whose shrill voice even sends birds into frenzy, arrives at the house, this paradise of recluses. She is a recluse of another kind, she has no choice, she has no one. And the friend she has doesn't find it in her to offer her company, even though in moment of lapse Nanda Kaul does almost end up inviting Ila Das to stay with her. The moment passes. Ila Das leaves the house. It is with her leaving that the world of this little reclusive paradise, its neatness, its sweet lies and deceptions, its inhabitants, and the fableistic preambles of the story itself, get violently swallowed by the real world. Like by fire, like by life. And the mountains go up in flames.

The book won Anita Desai Sahitya Akademi Award and Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize in 1978. This was the first time Anita Desai visited Kashmir. Just a year ago, she had written a book called 'Cat on a Houseboat' (1976) for children. That one was about a cat (again a reclusive animal) that goes to Kashmir for a holiday.

Came across this mesmerising bit in A Bhaskar Rao's "The Dancing Feet" (1964), a Shantaram Production about folk dance forms of India. [link for full movie at NFDC channel, where they had trouble dating the film]

Friday, September 6, 2013

At SearchKashmir not only are some old dreams of 'Earthly Paradise Kashmir' catalogued, but not so strangely it is also helping re-create some old dreams. Here is someone's visual interpretation of Dimitri Tiomkin's score for Otto Lang's 'Search For Paradise' (1957). The film was about two WW-II pilots, two Marco-Polos searching for paradise in East and of course visit Kashmir. It is about the adventures they have, there are high flying planes (new Jet planes meant new age of science ), fast flowing rivers (there was US presence in the region) and invincible mountains (Nanga Parbat was conquered only in 1953).

Look at the miracle of my idol-house, o Sheikh
That when it was ruined, it became the house of God!**

~ lines of Chandrabhan 'Brahman' quoted by Nek Rai.

In time of Akbar, Bir Singh Dev Bundela killed Abu'l Fazal near Gwalior at the behest of Prince Salim. In return Bundela got Adul Fazl's property in Mathura on which he built a temple. In time of Aurangzeb, Husain Ali Khan, the faujdar of Mathura tore down this temple on the order of Aurangzeb. A local poet Nek Rai, in sadness, quoted lines these attributing them to Chandrabhan Brahman.

Chandrabhan 'Brahman' (1582-1661), was son of Dharam Das of Lahore (a mansabdar, at the court of Akbar). He was a disciple of 'Abdulhaklm Saialkoti'. In Shah Jahan's court (1626–56) he was employed as a private secretary of Prince Dara. He later went on to serve Aurangzeb too. His muslim friends thought of him as a muslim. His son was Khwaja Tej Bhan.

In 'Bahar-e-gulshan-e-Kashmir', an anthological two volume, more than 1000 page work containing verses by hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit poets and brief biographical notes, commissioned by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru in 1931-31, Chandrabhan 'Brahman' is given as a Kashmiri Pandit.

This is probably the first proper collection of English translations of verse by Mulla Tahir Ghani, or Ghani Kashmiri (d. 1669), a Persian poet from Kashmir who lived during Aurangzeb's time and whose language was respected even in Iran. A poet whose creations, whose idioms, influenced Indian writers even as later as Mir and Ghalib.

The collection comes with a insightful introductory essay by Mufti Mudasir Farooqi on Ghani Kashmiri and Persian language in Kashmir.

The book offers translations of Ghazals, Quatrains (Rubaiyat) and a Masnavi.

As one reads through Ghani's work, one gets to step into Ghani's world, his joyous exclamations, his saddening doubts, his dejection of the way world works and his playful jokes at the world.

The compilation comes with English transliteration, so you actually get to read the original work as well the translation (a practice that should always be followed for such work. But somehow is seldom followed). The translations try best to retain the meaning of the original, the only problem is for a reader not already familiar with the way Persian poetry works, particularly in case of some Ghazals where the reader can easily forget the central theme of a composition in an attempt at catching the meaning of translation of an idiom.

One of the most interesting work translated in this book is Masnavi Shita'iyah oe Winter's Tale, a graphic and poetic description of Kashmiri winter by Ghani Kashmir that ends with lines:

I saw a Hindu drunk with devotion
'Such striving to what end?' I asked.

In reply said that wearer of the sacred thread:
'The reins of will are not in my hand.

"The Friend has yoked my neck with HIs thread
And pulled me by it wherever He wills."

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There is an interesting famous story given in the book. It is said that when Ghani Kashmiri was invited by Emperor Aurangzeb to his court, the poet snubbed him and refused.
The poet said to Mughal governor Saif Khan, 'Tell the King that Ghani is insane.' Saif Khan asked, 'How can I call a sane man insane?' At this Ghani tore his shirt and went away like a frenzied man. After three days he died.

What is not given in the book is a probable reason for Ghani's hesitation at joining the royal court. The explanation for this behaviour may be sought in the story of his master Shaikh Muhsin Fani.

"Fani was a court poet of Shahjahan and was greatly honoured by the Emperor. But when Sultan Murad Bakhsh [youngest son of Shahjahan] conquered Balkh [in Afghanistan] a copy of Muhsin's diwan was found in the library of Nadhr Muhammad Khan [Uzbek, happened in around 1646] the fugitive sovereign of the kingdom which contained panegyrics on him. This detection of duplicity very much enraged Shahjahan who removed him from the court. However the Emperor allowed him a pension. Fani returned to Kashmir and spent his days in instructing and educating youngmen."*

* From 'A Descriptive Catalogue of the Hindustani Manuscripts in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras' (1909)

Also, another thing not mentioned in the book is that his old takhallus Tahir is Chronograph for the year when Ghani (his later takhallus) started his poetic career.

Hold hands and whirl around
My brother's turban is brown
His wife's veil is red
Which she just won't shed
Heer comes from Kashmir
Ranjha is of Hindustan

~ A translation of Punjabi folk song 'Kikali kalir di' by Nirupama Dutt (from 'The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense' (2007)) from version given in 'Punjabi lok Git', compiled by Devendra Satyarthi and Mohinder Singh Randhaw in around 1956 and published in 1961. Kikali would be Punjabi equivalent of Kashmiri Hikat.

The usage of Kashmir and Hindustan in the lines, rather than alluding to origins of the fabled lovers, is meant as a tease, to show the incomparability of two. A popular device used in wedding songs to show the unbalanced scale between bride (usually on the higher end) and groom (at the lower end).

I came across it while looking for Devendra Satyarthi's travelogue on Kashmir from 1930s (which I did manage to track down! And will make available soon. Available Here). Legendary Punjabi folklorist Devendra Satyarthi was the first to introduce Mehjoor's work to India.

Now, re-watch Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar (2011), which was a re-take on story of Heer-Ranjha, with a Kashmiri Heer and an Indian Ranjha.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Above is a picture of two Kashmiris in Srinagar shot by Brian Brake in 1957. What else can this picture tell us?

I showed this picture to couple of old uncles who grew up in Kashmir and they told me this interesting bit:

The man in the background is a farmer. Obviously, because his legs are painted. The paint used to be called Ka'lim, or coal tar [or Tar'Koul, as in Kashmiri]. It was a popular practice among rice farmers in Kashmir. During sowing season [May-June, just around when Brian visited Kashmir], before getting into water-logged fields, the sower would put coal tar on his legs, as water proofing, to avoid insects and skin irritation. Of course, then for months his legs would be painted black.

Monday, September 2, 2013

As rising on its purple wing
The insect-queen of easter spring,
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer
Invites the young pursuer near,
And leads him on from flower to flower
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye:
So Beauty lures the full-grown child
With hue as bright, and wing as wild;
A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.
If won, to equal illd betrayed,
Woe waits the insect the maid,
A life of pain, the loss of peace,
From infant's play, or man's caprice:
The lovely toy so fiercely sought,
Has lost its charm by being caught,
For every touch that wooed it's stay
Has brush'd the brightest hues away
Till charm, and hue, and beauty gone,
'Tis left to fly or fall alone.
With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,
Ah! where shall either victim rest?
Can this with faded pinion sir
From rose to tulip as before?
Or Beauty, blighted in an hour,
Find joy within her broken bower?
No: gayer insects fluttering by
Ne'eer droop the wing o'er those that die,
And lovelier things have mercy shown
To every failing but their own,
And every woe a tear can claim
Except an erring sister's shame.

~ Lines from "The Giaour" (1813) by Lord Byron. A work of romantic Orientalism that looks at contrast between Christian and Islamic ideals. This was also one of the first works in which Vampire made an appearance.

His biography was written by Thomas Moore who went on to make Kashmir famous with his Lalla Rookh. Byron was father of Ada Lovelace, the first programmer.

Not the purple queen of Kashmir
June 2013. Kochi.

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Kashmir in forced exiles and paradise lost

There [in Cashmire's vale], Heaven and Earth are ever bright and kind;
Here [in Albion], blight and storms and damp forever float,
Whilst hearts are more ungenial than the zone -
Gross, spiritless, alive to no pangs but their own.
There, flowers and fruits are ever fair and ripe;
Autumn, there, mingles with the bloom of spring,
And forms unpunched by frost or hunger's gripe
A natural veil o'er natural spirits fling;
Here, woe on all but wealth has set its floor.
Famine, disease and crime even wealth's proud gates pollute

~ lines from 'Zeinab and Kathema' (1809) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, husband of Mary Shelley (of Frankenstein fame), and a friend of Lord Byron. This poem was about a Princess from Paradise - Kashmir - forceable taken to Hell - England.

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Kashmir in evil that ignites poetry

The Poet, wandering on, through Arabie,
And Persia, and the wild Carmanian waste,
And o'er the aerial mountains which pour down
Indus and Oxus from their icy caves,
In joy and exultation held his way;
Till in the vale of Cashmire, far within
Its loneliest dell, where odorous plants entwine
Beneath the hollow rocks a natural bower,
Beside a sparkling rivulet he stretched
His languid limbs. A vision on his sleep
There came, a dream of hopes that never yet
Had flushed his cheek. He dreamed a veiled maid
Sate near him, talking in low solemn tones.
Her voice was like the voice of his own soul
Heard in the calm of thought; its music long,
Like woven sounds of streams and breezes, held
His inmost sense suspended in its web
Of many-coloured woof and shifting hues.
Knowledge and truth and virtue were her theme,
And lofty hopes of divine liberty,
Thoughts the most dear to him, and poesy,
Herself a poet. Soon the solemn mood
Of her pure mind kindled through all her frame
A permeating fire; wild numbers then
She raised, with voice stifled in tremulous sobs
Subdued by its own pathos; her fair hands
Were bare alone, sweeping from some strange harp
Strange symphony, and in their branching veins
The eloquent blood told an ineffable tale.
The beating of her heart was heard to fill
The pauses of her music, and her breath
Tumultuously accorded with those fits
Of intermitted song. Sudden she rose,
As if her heart impatiently endured
Its bursting burthen: at the sound he turned,
And saw by the warm light of their own life
Her glowing limbs beneath the sinuous veil
Of woven wind, her outspread arms now bare,
Her dark locks floating in the breath of night,
Her beamy bending eyes, her parted lips
Outstretched, and pale, and quivering eagerly.
His strong heart sunk and sickened with excess
Of love. He reared his shuddering limbs and quelled
His gasping breath, and spread his arms to meet
Her panting bosom:...she drew back a while,
Then, yielding to the irresistible joy,
With frantic gesture and short breathless cry
Folded his frame in her dissolving arms.
Now blackness veiled his dizzy eyes, and night
Involved and swallowed up the vision; sleep,
Like a dark flood suspended in its course,
Rolled back its impulse on his vacant brain.

Alastor (1815) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, about a man traveling from Arabia finding perfection, a woman, in Kashmir

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All of these works were the by-product of Bernier's description of Kashmir traveling in Europe, including the work that directly influenced these poets - by a novel called The Missionary (1811) by Sydney Owenson. Influenced by more recent travelogues too, this story was about a Missionary traveling from Goa who falls in love with a Prophetess of Kashmir named Luxima whose brave 'Sati' death causes a revolution.

At last, through the branches of a spreading palm-tree, he beheld, at a distance, the object who had thus agitated and disturbed the calmest mind which Heaven's grace had ever visited. She was leaning on the ruins of a Brahminical altar, habited in her sacerdotal vestments, which were rich but fantastic. Her brow was crowned with consecrated flowers; her long dark hair floated on the wind; and she appeared a splendid image of the religion she professed - bright, wild, and illusory; captivating to the senses, fatal to the reason, and powerful and tyrannic to both.

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